Thing 15--a little leit reading, wince

15. Read a few perspectives on Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and the future of libraries and blog your thoughts.

I started by reading the Wikipedia article on Web 2.0. Here's the bits I found most interesting, or at least most worthy of snipping:

"It’s actually an idea that the reciprocity between the user and the provider is what’s emphasized. In other words, genuine interactivity if you like, simply because people can upload as well as download"—S. Fry

business embracing the web as a platform and utilising its strengths

o The web as a platform
o Data as the driving force
o Network effects created by an architecture of participation
o Innovation in assembly of systems and sites composed by pulling together features
from distributed, independent developers (a kind of "open source" development)
o Lightweight business models enabled by content and service syndication
o The end of the software-adoption cycle (the so-called perpetual beta)
o Software above the level of a single device, leveraging the power of the "Long
Tail"
o Ease of picking-up by early adopters

This seems like ideas that for most libraries aren't realistic. Our ILS systems seem like the opposite of Web 2.0, in my experience. There are now open source ILS in development and in use, but I don't think any large public library systems have joined that particular bandwagon.

On to Cites & Insights Library 2.0 and "Library 2.0". First I have to say how thrilling it was for me to be able to print a 32-page issue of C&I and read it and mark it up with a highlighter ON MPOW's DIME. I've been reading it rather irregularly for about can-it-be six years? But always printing and sharing with at least three people, or not printing...so this was the height of luxury, in my mind.

Walt (I get to call him that because I do know him) really looks at the rather intense storm that gripped the biblioblogosphere in late 2005 early 2006. I can remember reading some of those posts at the time, and thinking people weren't defining their terms very well. In some ways, I think someone got it right when they said "Library 2.0" would become so 2005.

I think Walt is correct in seeing the concepts of Library 2.0 as being useful if they allow us to examine new technology and how it can strengthen our services to our users. However, implementing "Library 2.0" willynilly for some "revolution" will not serve us or our users well at all.

Reading the statements Walt gathered and his commentary made me think more about this course. Why is Infopeople doing this? Are they jumping on a bandwagon. I'm going to muse about this a bit more in my final post! Walt may come off a little curmudgeonly, but his careful and thorough analysis is whipped up with wonderful dry wit. So, for me, reading his 32-page perspective (and skewering of some biblioblogosphere bigwigs) was fun!